Re: Improve the man pages of --date=STRING for 'date' and 'touch'.

[A. Costa]

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:39:34 -0700
address@hidden (Bob Proulx) wrote:

> In an attempt to improve the 'date' and 'touch' man pages here is a
> proposal for a concise description of --date=STRING.

A successful attempt that's quite helpful.  For the record for us
'pinfo' fans:

        pinfo coreutils --node="date invocation"

On the 'man touch' patch, a few minor notes; optional; maybe too
"expensive" to pursue at present (spelling=easy;grammar=seldom so):

>  touch \- change file timestamps
>  [DESCRIPTION]
>  .\" Add any additional description here
> +[DATE STRING]
> +The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string
> +such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or
> +even "next Thursday".  If empty the string indicates the beginning of 
> +the day.  The string may contain calendar date items, time of day
> +items, time zone items, day of week items, relative items, and pure
> +numbers.  The date string format is more complex than is easily
> +documented here but is fully described in the info documentation.

1) Sentence #3 ("The string may contain...") might go before #2, ("If 
empty...").

2) Suggest 's/If empty the/An empty/'.  Less to think of.

3) Are five instances of the plural noun "items" necessary?  The
   plural doesn't make logical sense for one-shot items, e.g. "may
   contain ... day of week itemS?", but the 'touch' date string 
   contains at most one day.

HTH...